Activated carbon was produced from Borassus aethiopum seeds through chemical activation using H₃PO₄ and alternative agents at 400-600°C for 20-60 minutes. Characterization showed carbonized samples (0.439 g/cm³ density, 73% carbon content) developed effective porosity (0.470 cm³/g pore volume) compared to raw seeds (0.531 g/cm³, 85.4% carbon). The material demonstrated excellent dye removal (84.4-99% efficiency) at 4-26 g dosage. Effluent analysis revealed significant improvements posttreatment: turbidity decreased from 33.26 to 1.02 NTU, conductivity from 1340 to 78.50 µS/cm, and pH normalized from 12.50 to 6.00. COD and BOD were reduced from 139.60 to 38.30 mg/L and 78.30 to 11.64 mg/L, respectively, meeting WHO standards. FTIR analysis identified key functional groups (O-H at 3441 cm⁻¹, C=O at 1799.72 cm⁻¹) contributing to adsorption, which followed pseudo-second-order kinetics (R² > 0.99), indicating chemisorption dominance. SEM confirmed the development of porosity in activated samples versus non-porous raw seeds. Borassusaethiopum is an effective precursor for wastewater treatment with comprehensive characterization supporting its adsorptionmechanism.

Excess Lifetime Cancer Risks, Activity Concentrations, Radium equivalent activity (Raeq), absorbed gamma dose rate (Dr), annual effective dose equivalent (AEDE), external hazard index (Hex), and annual gonadal dose equivalent (AGDE), were measured and evaluated from primordial radionuclides (226Ra, 232Th and 40K) in 10 Soil samples collected from Federal Medical Center (FMC), Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria. Radioactivity measurements were carried out by the method of gamma-ray spectroscopy with a Thallium-doped Sodium Iodide [NaI (Tl)] detector. The mean activity values obtained for the radionuclides 226Ra, 232Th, and 40K in Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Owerri are: 20.56 ± 4.73, 14.96 ± 3.42, and 105.65 ± 31.40 Bqkg-1, respectively. These values were below the worldwide average values: 32 Bqkg-1for 226Ra, 45 Bqkg-1 for 232Th, and 412 Bqkg- 1 for 40K as documented by UNSCEAR. 40K recorded the highest mean activity compared to 226Ra and 232Th in the studied soil samples, as shown in the table below. The mean computed values of the Excess Lifetime Cancer Risk are 0.08 x 10- 3 ± 0.03. The mean values of these hazard parameters were within the acceptable safe limits provided for human safety and environmental protection. This simply means that the Excess Lifetime Cancer Risk is insignificant or minimal from the studied samples.

This study investigates the two-dimensional, steady, incompressible flow of a Williamson nanofluid over a stretching sheet in the presence of a magnetic field, accounting for variable viscosity, thermal conductivity, and the Soret-Dufour effects. Williamson nanofluids, characterized by their non-Newtonian shear-thinning behavior, are widely used in industrial processes such as polymer extrusion, chemical engineering, and food processing. The coupling of magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) with variable thermophysical properties and cross-diffusion phenomena significantly influences heat and mass transfer performance, making it essential to explore these effects for practical applications. Numerical simulations are performed using the fourthorder Runge-Kutta method with the shooting technique to obtain velocity, temperature, and concentration profiles, along with skin friction, Nusselt, and Sherwood numbers. The study provides acomprehensive analysis of the impact of Williamson, magnetic, Soret, and Dufour parameters on flow and transport characteristics,offering valuable insights for optimizing engineering systems.

The genetic diversity of HIV-1 significantly influences the clinical management of HIV infection, particularly regarding antiretroviral therapy (ART) efficacy and drug resistance. This study investigates the incidence and distribution of HIV-1 genetic subtypes amongART-experienced individuals exhibiting drug resistance in Minna Metropolis, Niger State, Nigeria. A total of 120 ART-experiencedHIV-positive patients with suspected virologic failure were enrolled. Plasma samples were collected, and viral RNA was extracted andamplified for the pol gene region. Phylogenetic analysis was conducted to determine subtype distribution, while genotypic resistance testing identified resistance-associated mutations. Results indicated a predominance of CRF02_AG (58.3%), followed by subtype G (25.0%), subtype A1 (10.0%), and recombinant forms (6.7%). Resistance mutations were found in 73.3% of patients, with common mutations including M184V/I, K103N, and Y181C. The findings highlight the urgent need for tailored ART regimens and continued molecular surveillance to optimize treatment outcomes in the region.

Mechanochemistry enables rapid, quantitative reactions to occur at or close to 27℃. It is a one-step process that allows for reactant homogenization, product nucleation, and particle growth. These processes use little or no solvent, making them less wasteful and more environmentally friendly than solvent-based reactions. Ni2+ , Mn2+, Cr2+and Cu2+ metal ions were synthesized by grinding in an agate mortar with pestle using ligands derived from amino acids (Histidine &Alanine) which were further synthesized to form complexes. The entire experiment was carried out by solvent solvent-assisted mechanochemical process and ethanol was used as liquid liquid-assisted solvent. The complexes were characterized by IR spectroscopy, U-V spectroscopy, X-ray analysis, melting point, solubility test, and conductivity measurement. The Solubility test showed that the complexes are soluble in DMSO, DMF, and ethanol and are insoluble in both hexane and tetrachloromethane. The molar conductivity values are in the range of (6.05-28.56) Ω-1cm2mol-1 ) indicating the complexes behave as non-electrolytes. IR analysis showed a vibrational frequency band observed at (1620-1625) cm-1 which is assigned to the ʋ(C=N) of the azomethine, also the new bands M=N, M=O indicate the coordination reaction between the metal and the ligands. The UV visible analysis shows various transitions, the metal complexes showed adsorption bands at λ of 420 and 575nm respectively because of the ligand-to-metal charge transfer (LMCT). The XRD analysis showed that there was a change in phase between the starting material and the product which indicate that a reaction occurred, also the nature of the spectra showed that the compounds are all crystalline. The Antimicrobial activity showed that both the complexes and the ligands have good activity against the bacterial isolates. Antioxidant activity was also tested and the compound appeared to have moderate scavenging activities compared to the reference used. The values indicated that the activities are more pronounced when coordinated with metal ions.

A study of Abuja soils was carried out to determine physicochemical parameters and levels of selected metals. Flame atomic absorption spectrometer was used to determine total metal concentration. Aqua-regia (HCl-HNO3-H2O in the ratio 1:1:1) for the determination of the concentrations of Zn, Mn, Cu and As in the soils was employed also. Range of urban soil parameters were: electrical conductivity(16.20±0.20-374±0.50), pH(6.30±0.30-7.20±0.20), SO4(7.40±0.40-127.35±0.07)and Cl (25.02±0.02-65.05±0.01). Range of parameters in sub urban soil samples were: EC(12.10±0.10–269.05±0.05), pH(2.20±0.20-7.20±0.20),SO4(11.25±0.0766.35±0.07)and Cl(40.02±0.02–60.02±0.03).Sequence of metals concentrations in urban soils is as follows: Zn>Cu>Mn>As, sub urban soil samples had :Zn>Cu>Mn>As. Excess SO4 in Abuja soils can devastate the environment with acid rain. Excess Cl in Asokoro Forest portends danger to the environment as it destroys plants and aquatic habitat. Excess Zn in the soils inhibits photosynthesis in plants, thereby increasing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, causing global warming and also excess Cu in Abuja soils can interfere in the decomposition and other microbial activities in the soils, thereby affecting soil balance. An effective measure such as environmental risk assessment should be conducted periodically by relevant authorities towards controlling Zn contents in Abuja soils in order to reduce global warming.

In the past few decades, machines have gradually taken over the daily activities of human beings such as online shopping and clothes manipulation. It is essential to develop artificial intelligence techniques that can help people detect and classify clothing designs accordingly. Early efforts to solve the clothing image classification problem require carefully selecting and extracting certain features from clothing image datasets in such a way that the features of the datasets are highly represented. However, these methods are difficult in defining and capturing a wide range of image features. Research shows that Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) models can solve image classification problems better than traditional machine learning (ML) methods. However, they are faced with problems such as over-fitting, Hyper-parameter tuning, Noisy data, and insufficient training data. This work addresses the problem of overfitting which reduces the classification/generalization performance of clothing image classification models. We proposed four (4) CNN models in which a Regularization method called Dropout is added to each layer to handle the over-fitting problem. The model with the best result out of the four is adopted as the proposed model. The results show about 1.77% improvement in accuracy as compared to the results recorded by other models that were trained using the same dataset and the state-of-the-art architectural designs.

Rhodopseudomonas palustris, is a purple non-sulphur bacterium with properties of extraordinary metabolic versatility, carbon source diversity and metabolite diversity. Due to its biodetoxification and biodegradation properties, R. palustris has been traditionally applied in wastewater treatment and bioremediation, and also in agriculture. This study aimed to isolate and identify R. palustris from waste dump site in Minna, Nigeria, using conventional and molecular techniques. Soil samples were collected at 3 cm depth from different points at waste dump sites in Minna, Niger State, Nigeria. Inoculation was made on Nutrient agar plates and incubated at 30 ºC under 60 W incandescent light for 7days. The suspected bacterial isolate, based on cultural and morphological characteristics as well as biochemical reactions was subjected to molecular ribotyping. A PCR product of approximately 789 bp DNA maker was detected by agarose gel electrophoresis using 1500 bp Lamda maker. The DNA fragments of the isolates were obtained from DNA sequencing and were deposited in the NCBI-GenBank database. Based BLASTn search in GenBank using the fragments as the query, showed that the 16S rDNA of EG-4 share 99% sequence identity with Rhodopseudomonas palustris. Results of this study indicate the presence of R. palustris in waste dump site in Minna.

This study examined the health risk exposure of pupils to classroom dust in some primary schools in Calabar Metropolis, Cross River State, Nigeria. Dust samples were collected from chosen primary schools by the sweeping method. The samples were analyzed using Ultra -Violet Spectrophotometer Palintest model 7500. The data were analyzed using ingestion, inhalation and dermal contact models. The findings of the study revealed that classrooms in the study area are heavily polluted with Ni, Cu, Cr, Cd and Co with exception of a few schools and this may pose health risks to the pupils. The mean concentration of heavy metals was in this order: Co>Fe>Cu>Mn>Cr>Ni>Zn>Cd>Pb. The calculated values of the hazard quotient (HQ) and the hazard index (HI) were greater than 1. The total carcinogenic risk was in this order: Cr>Cd>Ni>Pb and were all greater than the acceptable range of 1 x 10-6 – 1 x 10-4 indicating a significant risk indicators of cancer. The implication of this is that there is the likelihood of cancer risk. It was therefore recommended that the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) should sponsor research to routinely monitor the classrooms to ensure that they are pollution – free of heavy metals such as Ni, Cu, Cd and Co. There should be an awareness campaign among teachers and pupils on good sanitation and hygiene in the classrooms and school environment. Also, environmentally – free remediation techniques should be used by experts to clean off heavy metals in classrooms.

Lactic acid bacteria were investigated for their ability to degrade starch under various conditions. Three isolates were selected and they include two Lactobacillus plantarum strains and one Lactobacillus brevis (LP1, LP2 and LB respectively). Growth and amylase production were optimised with different carbon and nitrogen sources, pH, temperature, metal ions and starch concentrations. Obtained data were analyzed with the analysis of variance (ANOVA) using SPSS 2007. All the isolates gave the maximum values for growth and enzyme production at 30 oC while the optimum pH for growth was 5.0 for isolate LP2 and 6.0 for LB and LP1. The best pH for amylase production for the isolates was 6.0. Optimum amylase activity occurred at 50 oC for LP1 and LP2 and at 60oC for LB. All the strains studied utilised all carbon sources for growth and amylase production. Concentrations of soluble starch affected amylase production considerably. Metal ions at low concentrations increased the activity of the enzyme while micromolar concentrations of EDTA and 2,4 DNP repressed the activity of the enzyme. LP1 and LP2 had the same Vmax and Kmax values of 5.0 while LB had the lowest values of Vmax and Kmax. LP1 had the highest Km value.